Wednesday 11 May 2011

Ship ahoy

I don't think I have mentioned before, but I'm not a lover of boats. that's not for any other reason than having bad memories of an overnight ferry from the UK to Jersey (Channel Islands) as a youth on a school trip. It was an horrendous 8 hours, with rough seas and a lesson in why the toilet doors had frames across the bottom in true bulkhead fashion, to stop the puke swilling out when EVERY one on board gets sea sick.

As a consequence I avoid boats at all costs, now this does cause a problem on the holiday front, the UK is a relatively small island and if you want to "go abroad" on vacation you either need a plane or a boat. What makes the problem worse is Mrs RJR doesn't like planes !!! This as you can imagine means a lot of UK holidays.

So why the picture of the boat, well I'm not on UK mainland as I type this, I'm in a Bed and Breakfast on the Isle of Man about 70 miles off the shores of Liverpool, between England and Ireland. The boat is Manannan, the 5000 tonne, 800 passenger, 200 car ferry that I got travelled on to get here. After a two and a half hour crossing, I'm pleased to report that despite the force 5 "breeze" the travel sickness tablets I took worked perfectly.

I spent the day yesterday at a church in Liverpool setting up video conference equipment and have travelled to the Isle of Man to set up the same facilities in the church here. The idea being, to reduce the amount of travelling church members have to make to speak to Priesthood leaders on the mainland.

A couple of Pictures..


I took this first one from the landing dock in Liverpool and is of the Liver building in Liverpool, when I look at it I cant help but see similarities to the Salt Lake Temple


This is the Manannan arriving, it doesn't look very big in this picture, but its 313 feet long.



Just taken this morning, my bedroom has a sea view ( if you stand on a chair and lean out of the window)

Finally, you cant visit the Great British B&B with out thinking of Fawlty Towers...



Your roving reporter, reviewing the isle's of the sea ;)